Ant Orgy

We didn't get to go out yesterday (for reasons beyond our control) and I was feeling a little glum and wishing something exciting would happen when I walked into a swarm of flying ants.

Some of them were in the air, but most were on the ground, rushing around the way ants do-  a few having squirmy, dangerous-looking sex.

I read up about them afterwards. They come out of the ground in warm dry weather, have a bit of a rave, hook up with a partner and then- if they're female- drop off their wings and scurry back underground to lay their eggs. I don't know what the males do- probably just keel over and die.

I reckon they got things done in the nick of time because it rained heavily over night.

Late Night Visitor

We had a visitor late last night. Something big.  We heard it barging about on the patio- a little out of control- as if feeling itself trapped (which is understandable because the patio is closed in on all sides with a single door to the garden). Then a pot hit the flagstones and broke.

It had left by the time I got downstairs to shine a light around. So what was it- A fox? a badger? a deer? All are possible.